Who Supports Democracy in Tanzania and Why?

Abstract

This article sets out to identify factors that determine popular support for multi-party democracy among the Tanzanian citizens.  Using the 1999 survey data, the findings from this study have demonstrated that citizens’ assessment of the functioning of multi-party system in relation to peace and stability in the country.  That is, support for multi-party system is mainly determined by how politically informed a person is, as well as how satisfied a person is with the presence of civic peace and social harmony even amidst pluralist democracy.  In addition, social-background factors especially education and gender have proved to be important elements in generating popular support for multi-party system.  What is even more revealing is the finding that citizens can still prefer a multi-party system even if their economic living standards have not improved to an expected level, Yet, the significance influence of the individuals’ party loyalty upon the extent of support for multi-party system seems to pose serious challenges to democratic consolidation.